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No More Abortions in South Dakota?

Submitted by kellym78 on July 22, 2008 - 5:16pm.

Hehe...this article from Slate.com encapsulated the insanity that has forever gripped the anti-abortion movement. The double-speak required to pass this recent bit of legislation is beyond Orwellian. According to this recent mandate, abortion "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." Huh? Can you run that by me one more time? An implanted embryo is whole, separate, and unique? Then why does a mere separation of the placenta from the uterine wall inevitably result in death? Whether it happens via mechanical methods or spontaneously, it seems to be a near certainty that until the point of viability, which is somewhere between 20 and 28 weeks, detaching this supposedly whole and separate human being will result in its demise.

I agree with the author of this article: Abortions should be renamed "separations," and those who choose separation should no longer be held accountable for the consequences. After all, it is a "whole, separate, unique, and living human being."

Quote:

Fetal Separation

Starting this week, under orders from the state attorney general and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, medical providers in South Dakota must present a scripted statement to women who seek abortions. The script, dictated by the legislature three years ago, declares that any abortion "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."

Until now, I wasn't aware that the fetus—a term that, according to the South Dakota law, includes "the implanted embryo"—was a whole, separate, living human being. I thought it was ... you know ... implanted. I mean, I'm just a guy, not really an expert or anything. But, um, placenta? Umbilical cord? Do those terms ring a bell? And that's not even getting to the tricky stuff, like the role of maternal RNA in directing embryonic growth or all the work done by the womb to facilitate the embryo's attachment and nourishment.

I have to say, it's a relief to learn that the embryo is so complete and independent. I mean, it solves the whole problem. Here's this woman who just wants to be separated from her embryo. And lo and behold, it's already separate! No need to agonize. Just detach it and let it grow. It's separate, it's whole, it's living. Cancel the abortion. Perform a separation instead.

Sure, some cranky district attorney might take you to court, claiming your separation was really an abortion. Make sure you countersue for legal costs, because you've got a slam-dunk case. The law under which you're being prosecuted doesn't just declare that embryos and fetuses are separate. It also defines abortion as "the use of any means to intentionally terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with knowledge that the termination with those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the fetus."

How can South Dakota claim that you should know separation will kill the fetus, when South Dakota has insisted on informing you, prior to the procedure, that the fetus is already whole and separate?

Don't give me some medical-school mumbo jumbo about obstetrics. The legislature mooted all that blather when it superimposed its judgment. Fetuses are whole and separate. Therefore, being a law-abiding citizen, you have no reason to believe that separation will cause fetal death. Therefore, under the law's terms, separation is not abortion. No need to bother with the onerous paperwork and liability threats the legislature has assigned exclusively to abortion. You're not in the abortion business anymore.

Look, I don't like abortions. Fortunately, neither do the women who ask for them. Most abortions happen because women get pregnant when they're not ready. Prevent the pregnancy, and you prevent the abortion. So, here's a word of advice to legislators like those in South Dakota: Stop withholding birth control and stop lying to women about their bodies. You can't even keep your lies straight. That's how you ended up telling doctors to tell women that separation will kill a separate human being. See you in court.

South Dakota already tried the total abortion ban and it failed when the voters rose up and voted to overturn it. So the antis are simply going back to their old methods of chipping away at the freedoms until there are none left (that's why one can never compromise with a fundy). This latest bit is nothing new. Here is Kansas the doctor must provide a pricey publication to hand to every patient that details embryonic development, yadda yadda, because antis feel women are stupid and have no idea what a pregnancy entails.

On the nationwide front the Bush regime is working to criminalize the birth control pill and IUD as being the same as abortion. Since fundies believe life begins at contraception any device which prevents a fertilized egg from implanting on the uterine wall is the same as an abortion. Never mind that this happens naturally to 70% of all conceptions.

No doubt the public will oppose this as well since the majority of women rely on the birth control pill as their main means of contraception (since it's 99% effective and has other health benefits). However, you have John McCain who thinks Viagra should be covered by health insurance but not the pill because impotence is a medical condition while pregnancy is not.

So if people are in favor of contraception being outlawed again (it was fully decriminalized in the 1960s, previously only married couples were allowed to use it) then throw your support by McCain by voting for him or tossing your vote to a third party candidate. McCain also favors criminalizing abortion again and with two justices about to retire he can make that a possibility.

I am the publicist for Doubleday Religion, and would like to send you Michael Novak's upcoming book, "No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers" for possible review on your site. Please email me your address if you are interested, or if you would like more information.

Kelly, that note from the supposed publicist for Doubleday Religion who wants to send you Michael Novak's upcoming book, "No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers," was that for real?

The title interested me, so I Googled it. What I'm reading sounds like some seriously messed up bullshit. One "about the book" section wrote:

"Novak brilliantly recasts the tired debate pitting faith against reason. Both the atheist and the believer experience the same dark night in which God's presence seems absent, he argues, and the conflict between faith and doubt stems not from objective differences, but from divergent attitudes toward the unknown."

"...far from being irrational, the spiritual perspective actually provides the most satisfying answers to the eternal questions of meaning. Faith is a challenge at times, but it nonetheless offers the only fully coherent response to the human experience."

Imagine you are a girl ... you don't want to have a kid, but you like fucking boys ....

(a good fun idea, fucking, indeed )

Birth control is freedom and so is abortion. An egg, an embryo, is not an idol.

Abortion is of the most troubling topics for me ..... Please science, make this problem go away .... A reversible vaccine ....

I don't know any more...not an idol, no, but...what is it?

I used to be clear cut on this issue.

I've always been pro choice.

But now my wife is pregnant and I've become very, very interested in what is going on inside her........and when I found actual video of fetuses with beating hearts and waving around, sucking thumbs, yawning, hiccuping etc. it became extremely difficult for me to continue thinking of this in the same way I did in the past.

Please Note: I am NOT trying to convince anyone of anything except that these and others have caused me to seriously reconsider my perspective. I still have no answers though, and maybe I never will. We had to try a long time and we want our baby so it isn't something I have to consider for our particular case. My wife is coming up on her 14th week.

I'm of the view that abortion should be safe, legal, and infrequent. The pro life terrorists don't want abortion, nor do they want access to contraceptives, which they view as a form of abortion. That sounds like an epic fail policy if ever there was one.